Beric the Briton | Page 6

as much as he could do to hold
his own against him. I was surprised myself to see how well he wielded
a sword of full weight, and how active he was. The contest reminded
me of a dog and a wild cat, so nimble were the boy's springs, and so
fierce his attacks. Lucinus fairly lost his temper at last, and I stopped
the fight, for although they fought with blunted weapons, he might well
have injured the lad badly with a downright cut, and that would have
meant trouble with the Iceni again."
"He is intelligent, too," Julia replied. "Sometimes I have him in while I
am working with the two slave girls, and he will stand for hours asking

me questions about Rome, and about our manners and customs."
"One is never sure of these tamed wolves," Caius said; "sometimes they
turn out valuable allies and assistants, at other times they grow into
formidable foes, all the more dangerous for what they have learned of
us. However, do with him as you like, Julia; a woman has a lighter
hand than a man, and you are more likely to tame him than we are.
Cneius says that he is very eager to learn, and has ever a book in his
hand when not practising in arms."
"What I like most in him," Julia said, "is that he is very fond of our
little Berenice. The child has taken to him wonderfully, and of an
afternoon, when he has finished with Cneius, she often goes out with
him. Of course old Lucia goes with them. It is funny to hear them on a
wet day, when they cannot go out, talking together --she telling him
stories of Rome and of our kings and consuls, and he telling her tales of
hunting the wolf and wild boar, and legends of his people, who seem to
have been always at war with someone."
After Beric had resided for three years and a half at Camalodunum a
great grief fell on the family of Caius Muro, for the damp airs from the
valley had long affected Julia and she gradually faded and died. Beric
felt the loss very keenly, for she had been uniformly kind to him. A
year later Suetonius and the governor of the colony decided that as the
Sarci had now been quiet for nearly five years, and as Caius reported
that their young chief seemed to have become thoroughly Romanized,
he was permitted to return to his tribe.
The present was his first visit to the colony since he had left it four
months before. His companion, Boduoc, was one of the tribesmen, a
young man six years his senior. He was related to his mother, and had
been his companion in his childish days, teaching him woodcraft, and
to throw the javelin and use the sword. Together, before Beric went as
hostage, they had wandered through the forest and hunted the wolf and
wild boar, and at that time Boduoc had stood in the relation of an elder
brother to Beric. That relation had now much changed. Although
Boduoc was a powerful young man and Beric but a sturdy stripling, the
former was little better than an untutored savage, and he looked with
great respect upon Beric both as his chief and as possessing knowledge
that seemed to him to be amazing.
Hating the Romans blindly he had trembled lest he should find Beric on

his return completely Romanized. He had many times, during the lad's
stay at Camalodunum, carried messages to him there from his mother,
and had sorrowfully shaken his head on his way back through the forest
as he thought of his young chief's surroundings. Beric had partially
adopted the Roman costume, and to hear him talking and jesting in
their own language to the occupants of the mansion, whose grandeur
and appointments filled Boduoc with an almost superstitious fear, was
terrible to him. However, his loyalty to Beric prevented him from
breathing a word in the tribe as to his fears, and he was delighted to
find the young chief return home in British garb, and to discover that
although his views of the Romans differed widely from his own, he
was still British at heart, and held firmly the opinion that the only hope
for the freedom of Britain was the entire expulsion of the invaders.
He was gratified to find that Beric had become by no means what he
considered effeminate. He was built strongly and massively, as might
be expected from such parents, and was of the true British type, that
had so surprised the Romans at their first coming among them,
possessing great height and muscular power, together with an activity
promoted by constant exercise.
Beric had fallen back upon